One day after the Israelis pulled out, the Gazan border with Egypt appeared to melt away as thousands of Palestinians used their new freedom to come and go as they pleased.

What was a trickle on Monday turned into a torrent on Tuesday as Palestinians from all over Gaza headed to Rafah to cross into Egypt. They pried open doors in the massive metal security wall left by Israel and squeezed through.

A Palestinian girl holds an umbrella to protect her from the scorching sun as she crosses with her family into Palestinian Rafah through the Philadelphi Corridor buffer zone from the Egyptian side of the divided city. Sept.13, 2005. (Photo MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

Thousands walked through gaps in the wall that Israeli tanks used to drive through. The razor wire that topped the short Egyptian wall was ripped off.

Fathers lifted their children over the wall, teenage boys helped push elderly women over. Men pulled cars beside the wall and filled them with smuggled goods.

Before Israel withdrew, Egypt agreed to post 750 security officers on the border to prevent militants from smuggling advanced weapons into Gaza for use against the Jewish state. Egypt has not yet put all of the border guards in place.

A Palestinian woman looks into Egypt over a wall that divides Palestinian Rafah from the Philadelphi Corridor buffer zone on the Gaza-Egypt border. Sept. 13, 2005. (Photo credit MOHAMMED ABED/AFP/Getty Images)

Israel and the Palestinians have not agreed on how and where people and goods will be allowed to move between Gaza and Egypt.

Zalman Shoval, an adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, said Israel might eventually seek international monitors for the border. "The great danger is that both people and arms could be smuggled under the unwatchful eyes of the Egyptians."

Jamal Kaed, the Palestinian commander of southern Gaza, said 1,000 Palestinian police would be sent to the border to patrol and set up roadblocks. By Tuesday afternoon, a bulldozer was lifting a concrete block into place to plug a gap in the wall on the Palestinian side.

Kaed said the Palestinian forces were seizing marijuana as well as cigarettes and food that was smuggled into Gaza.

Greenhouses Looted

Palestinians also looted dozens of greenhouses, walking off with irrigation hoses, water pumps and plastic sheeting.

Jewish donors in the United States bought more than 3,000 greenhouses from Israeli settlers in Gaza for $14 million last month and transferred them to the Palestinian Authority.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas went on television to say that he would take immediate steps to rein in the chaos. "We have one law for everyone and no one is above the law. We are not going to tolerate chaos after today."